LINCOLN — In his 27th season and after more than 630 victories at Lincoln Community High School, the floor where many of coach Neil Alexander’s wins have come on will be named for the hall of fame coach.

On Saturday, before a game against Chicago Harlan, the floor inside Roy S. Anderson Gymnasium was honored for Alexander.

“If I hadn’t won as many games as we’ve won, we wouldn’t be doing this tonight,” Alexander said before Saturday’s game. “It’s not me: there’s a lot of people who have made this program what it is, starting with the players, the parents, the community, the support the kids get — it’s an easy place to play and a fun place to play.”

Alexander is 632-214 in 27 seasons at Lincoln and is 791-389 overall in a 42-year career.

After the junior varsity game, superintendent Robert Bagby started the ceremony, adding it was his privilege, as a former coach himself, to be on hand.

It wasn’t until the Dec. 20 school board meeting that the honor was official. Alexander said he didn’t know about it until that night.

“It was a complete surprise. I had no idea anything like that was going to happen,” Alexander said.

“It means the world that somebody would do something like that. You don’t get that often in sports. I’ve been very fortunate to be at a place that loves their basketball, kids love it, they want to be a part of a winning program and they work hard. And then to have the support of the administration, it makes the job pretty easy.”

Since Lawrence Thomas started coaching at Southeast, when the two schools were both members of the Central State Eight Conference, there have been some epic games between the two schools — including a Southeast win at the buzzer in Thomas’ first trip to Lincoln to give Southeast the outright CS8 championship over Lincoln.

Thomas was on hand Saturday and said Alexander was both “consistent and class personified.”

“I’ve always been a fan of the way he runs his program, the way he coaches his kids up, the way he’s not afraid to coach his kids and that’s huge these days. He’s set the tone for his program from the top. I’ve admired him from afar and close up. I just appreciate everything he’s done to help me.

“This night is very deserving.”

Alexander said in a pre-ceremony interview, and reiterated during the ceremony, that his wife Denise Alexander has played a huge role in his opportunity.

“I’ve been blessed to be able to do the things I’ve wanted to do,” Alexander said. “And it goes back to my wife, who allowed me to do those things. She pretty much raised our kids — when she needed a firm hand, she’d always call for it, but she’s the head of the family and she’s allowed me to do the things I’ve truly loved to do.”

The system for success was already in place, thanks to coaches Roy S. Anderson and Loren Wallace, before Alexander arrived in 1990.

“It started back many, many years ago before I was here — the commitment the kids had,” Alexander said. “One thing I tried when I came here was I didn’t want to let the community down and I wanted to make sure we maintained and tried to do some things.”

Thomas, who is in his 10th season at Southeast, said he’s been impressed by the consistency of Alexander’s teams.

“To be here that long — which I couldn’t even imagine — I’ve seen him against the best teams in the state and he’s been able to come out on top and he’s done that over and over,” Thomas said.

Wallace was 271-68 over 12 seasons before leaving in 1987 for Bloomington, has given Alexander sage words of advice.

“You take year by year. I had opportunities (to leave), but none of them were better positions than what this job was,” Alexander said. “Coach Loren Wallace — I’ve had a lot of conversations with him — and one of his comments was he would’ve never left this place if he knew what it was compared to what is out there. I’ve taken that to a lot of thought and decision-making.”

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